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Audi Q5 with New Infotainment Platform
“The exceptional performance spectrum of this new platform is a tribute to the cooperation and team spirit between our two companies’ specialists,” said Dinesh C. Paliwal, Harman Chief Executive Officer. “We are delighted to apply our leading-edge technology with Audi to create an exciting new experience for drivers.”
The Harman/Audi platform sets new benchmarks for automotive navigation, communication and wide-screen entertainment. A high-performance NVIDIA® graphics processor ensures that navigation map images transition smoothly, even when the vehicle quickly changes direction. Driver orientation is enhanced by a three-dimensional landscape view that reproduces true-to-scale terrain. Photorealistic depiction of points of interest allows visual matching of key landmarks to the in-car display, and identification of commercial points of interest is enhanced with well-known brand logos. The display offers a bird’s-eye view of more-distant destinations and features automatic close-up zoom at intersections.
Available map media cover 43 European countries, the United States and Canada. Precise audio route instructions and voice commands for audio, telephone, address book and navigation functions are supported in eight languages. The system supports connection of external devices such as USB storage media or an Apple iPod; a jukebox function allows for creation of personal music playlists. The digital radio accepts both European Digital Audio Broadcast signals and U.S. satellite services. An integral four-band GSM cell phone supports Bluetooth® connection and accepts a SIM card from a driver’s personal phone.
[...] The German luxury automaker managed to sell more than 516,000 cars to customers worldwide between January and June (2007: 508,842), thus not only representing a gain of 1.4 percent compared with the first six months of 2007, but according to Audi, it’s the company’s best first half-year in history in terms of deliveries. Audi expects that the second half of the year will be even better as it will release the revised A3 and A6 models along with the all-new Q5 compact SUV. [...]